Everyday with You - Everyday Robots - Netflix

Everyday Robots is the debut solo studio album by British musician Damon
Albarn, best known as the frontman of Blur and Gorillaz. Described by
Albarn as his “most personal record”, the album was co-produced by
Richard Russell and released on 25 April 2014. It features guest
contributions from musician and producer Brian Eno, singer Natasha Khan
and the Leytonstone City Mission Choir. It was nominated for the 2014
Mercury Prize for best album. The album produced five singles: “Everyday
Robots”, “Lonely Press Play”, “Hollow Ponds”, US-only release “Mr
Tembo”, and “Heavy Seas of Love”. Everyday Robots received positive
reviews from music critics, and debuted at number two on the UK Albums
Chart.

Everyday with You - Critical reception - Netflix

Everyday Robots received generally positive reviews from critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from
mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, based on
36 reviews, which indicates “generally favourable reviews.” Rob
Fitzpatrick at Q magazine said that the album is up there with his best.
“As anyone who's ever interviewed Damon Albarn will tell you, he's an
endlessly interesting chap. Try and get too close and personal, though,
and he'll leave you in silence. However Everyday Robots is more personal
than any of his other work, even more so than his early Blur days.
'Hollow Ponds' is a gloriously lazy lament where horses and passing
trade 'reveal a pentangle', where 'dreams are shared on LCDs', and
reveals more about Blur's second studio album Modern Life is Rubbish.”
Fitzpatrick also revealed the extent of the contributions that Brian Eno
made to the record, after his appearance on both “Heavy Seas of Love”
and “You and Me”. He named songs like “You and Me” and “The Selfish
Giant” as quietly introverted and exploring new depths of his
songwriting, he also cited songs “Lonely Press Play”, “Heavy Seas of
Love” and “Hollow Ponds” as standouts from the album and gave the album
a very high four star review. Andy Gill of Uncut magazine wrote that the
album's use of samples from Lord Buckley and Timothy Leary were some of
the finer points of the album and praised producer, Richard Russell for
his work on the album. He also mentioned the song “Photographs (You Are
Taking Now)”, as having “...particularly resonant lines...”. Talking of
the influences on the record, he spoke about how Albarn's track “The
Selfish Giant”, takes particular influence from Keith Jarrett. He also
spoke about the “bubbiling sing-along 'Mr. Tembo'” as being a highlight
of the record as well. “The History of a Cheating Heart” also vindicated
the “...brave vulnerability characteristic of what is a predominantly
melancholy album”. In summary he wrote: “For the most part here,
however, Everyday Robots is a less ebullient, more intimate and
reflective affair, as befits the tentative revelation of a man's soul.”
In Clash magazine's review of the album, Gareth James wrote: “What
Everyday Robots is, however, is a subtle, textured patchwork covering
Damon Albarn's 45 years to date, with lyrics capturing snapshots of his
childhood in Leytonstone through to a song he made up for a baby
elephant he met in Tanzania. Albarn opted to put himself in the solo
spotlight and leave his friend (Richard Russell) behind the desk.
Russell's signature stripped-back sound is all over Everyday Robots, but
it serves the songs well. Little touches like the piano motif from the
title track reappearing at the end of album-closing Brian Eno
collaboration 'Heavy Seas of Love', or the gradual hastening of the beat
at the end of 'Lonely Press Play' to cue in 'Mr. Tembo', are a delight.
The phrase 'slow-burner' is tossed around rather carelessly, but
Everyday Robots is a definite contender. Weeks on from the first listen,
it feels like it's always been there. It doesn't burn out so much as
creep up and these songs offer yet another new guise for a remarkable
talent.” Fiona Shepard of The Scotsman gave the album three out of five
stars. In her review she mentioned that lyrically it is just as good if
not better than, Gorillaz' “On Melancholy Hill” and Rocket Juice & the
Moon's “Poison”. She also said: “Everyday Robots may be too consistently
low-key for the Blur massive, but it is an exquisitely pitched solo
flight from a self-confessed serial collaborator.” Andy Gill of The
Independent gave the album a 4 out of 5 star review praising the use of
Lord Buckley samples on tracks like “Everyday Robots” and “Mr Tembo”. He
compared Albarn's song-writing to that of rock legend Ray Davies and
said: “It's a rare moment of extrovert cheer on an intimate,
introspective album that takes tentative steps to reveal the soul behind
the star.” And recommended that songs like “Everyday Robots”, “The
History of a Cheating Heart”, “Mr Tembo” and “Hollow Ponds” were the
standouts of the record as a whole. Larry Day of musicOMH gave the album
four and a half stars out of five. Day wrote: “Everyday Robots is a
multi-layered record, much like an aural pavlova, with gooey dollops of
bittersweet, outright sweet, darkly morose and wistful reflection. It’s
rather strange tasting pavlova however, squishing sour pain with halcyon
nostalgia.” Though Day also pointed out his favourite tracks on the
record as well: “'The Selfish Giant', featuring Bat For Lashes' Natasha
Khan's dulcet pipes, is home to romantic-era piano motifs and glitchy
beats. It's a kind of bare bones dance ballad, with bolshy pulses and
simple-yet-sublime melodies. The Brian Eno and The Leytonstone Mission
Choir-featuring 'Heavy Seas of Love' is perhaps the grandest cut on the
record, with rickety percussion and illustrious piano embellishments.”
Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone gave a very positive review, citing Albarn's
ability to produce and write melancholic music as one of the album's
standout features. Dolan wrote: “Albarn is an avid collaborator who has
worked with greats like Bobby Womack and Lou Reed. But his pals stay
low-key here. Producer Richard Russell sculpts alluring atmospheric
beats; Bat for Lashes singer Natasha Khan lends a faint harmony to the
fragile relationship autopsy 'The Selfish Giant'; Brian Eno adds synths
to 'You and Me' and vocals to the woozy chanty 'Heavy Seas of Love'. The
results can often recall Seventies Eno at his most meditative and
Village Green-era Ray Davies at his most world-sick more than Gorillaz's
bounce or Blur's guitar buzz.” Chris Schulz of The New Zealand Herald,
was a little more critical of the album, writing: “'The hours pass by,
just left on repeat,' he mourns on the shuffling broodiness of
'Hostiles'. 'I had a dream you were leaving ... when every atom in the
universe is passing through our lives,' he mumbles grumpily on 'The
Selfish Giant'. And he saves his biggest mopes for The History of a
Cheating Heart, when he complains: 'I carry this on my back.' No wonder
Albarn looks so hangdog on the album's cover. But Everyday Robots also
comes with moments that are strangely addictive: 'Photographs (You Are
Taking Now)' slow-motion throb sounds like something The xx would
happily dance to, the title track combines a horror movie atmosphere
with genuinely heartfelt lyrics, 'Lonely Press Play' sounds like a
Gorillaz outtake that's just missing a De La Soul verse to elevate it to
greatness, while the chirpy instrumentals 'Parakeet' and 'Seven High'
deserve more exploration.” He gave the album three out of five stars and
concluded by saying: “He's either a sad man trying to release a happy
album, or a happy man trying to release a sad one. Either way, it seems
Albarn's tried on so many hats, he might have forgotten which one's his
own.” Andrzej Lukowski of Drowned in Sound wrote: “Everyday Robots is a
lovely record, and in its lack of duds or whimsical twattery it’s
probably one of most consistent things Albarn has ever put his name to.
That doesn't make it the best, though: it doesn't take risks – not by
Albarn’s standards, anyway – and in the most literal sense it's not all
that exciting. But if its prettiness is conventional, if it gives us
what we expect, then you know, you’ll listen to this a damn sight more
than the Rocket Juice & the Moon album. Damon Albarn is at his best
exploring pastures new, but that doesn't make this wordy wise stocktake
of a record any less of a pleasure.” He also praised the album's track
“You and Me” saying: "Much has been made of how personal the record is,
but there's nothing searing as Blur's rawest moments – the abiding
sensation is one of intense intimacy. Shuffling seven-minute centrepiece
“You and Me” contains a sleepy allusion to his past heroin use (“Tin
foil and a lighter, the ship across”), but really it's just an honest
allusion from a man done with being coy – it's not a song 'about' heroin
like “Beetlebum” was, and for all the media fuss the line has generated,
nobody actually listening to the song is likely to be shocked." Alex
Petridis of The Guardian wrote: “Beautiful, but subtle, cloudy and
elusive, Everyday Robots certainly isn't the album it's purported to be.
You come out of the other side not much the wiser about the man behind
it. Never mind: the music is good enough that a lack of revelation
doesn't really seem to matter while Everyday Robots is playing. Whoever
Damon Albarn is, he's extremely good at what he does.”